Noah Segan can totally judge a book by its cover—or the measure of a man by his suit. “Suiting is like armour, it has a purpose,” he says, blue eyes fixed intently. “And your suit should be representative of your purpose.” While Segan, 28, grew up with a well-suited father—complete with “Oxford shirt, J. Press, ribbon belt,” he says— he also knows how quickly styles can change, or change you. “Yesterday for the first time in my life I wore French cuffs,” he tells me over breakfast at Suits lobby bar in the Trump International Hotel & Tower Toronto the morning after the premiere of his latest film, Rian Johnson’s
Looper. The sci-fi action movie opened the
Toronto International Film Festival Thursday night. “It was a growth moment.” Just one of many, it seems, during his short stay in Toronto. “I just got my first manicure,” he proclaims, noticing me noticing his perfectly polished nails when he reaches out for a handshake as we first meet. “They’re buffed!”
You know what buffed means? “Just learned it,” he beams, when I realize I said that out loud. “I will try anything - I think that’s a good sign for a man,” he later tells me. Like taking direction from his co-star, Bruce Willis, to stand on his tippy toes as Willis throws him against the wall during a fight scene between the iconic action hero actor and Segan’s “sad version of a bad guy“-role as Kid Blue in his third collaboration with his friend, writer and director Rian Johnson (
Brick, The Brothers Bloom), and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, all of whom for which the characters in
Looper were specifically written. (Kid Blue, is in fact Segan’s real-life nickname, gleaned from the 1973 western of the same title, starring Dennis Hopper - "one of my idols,” - as the eponymous outlaw.)
Read on for Noah's seven truths about men's style!
Segan also rocks a pretty sweet fedora. Given these compulsory qualifications - as peripatetic and meticulous as he is, - we present the seven universal truths about style every dude should know, as told by Noah Segan.
1. Always come prepared: “There’s a few things I always carry on me: a toothpick, a guitar pick, a handkerchief, a pen and a pocketknife,” he says. Think about it: “If somebody needs a hanky and you’re the guy with the hanky, that’s karma.”
2. “
You have to try everything once, or maybe twice. And if you really like it, you should do it all the time.” Putting his money where his mouth is, Segan plans to try out a pedicure next.
3. “I’ll tell you the most important thing; my father is very serious about this and I get irked about it too - I do judge a man:
Always the middle, sometimes the top, never the bottom,” he says, referring to how to button a suit jacket. “It’s one of those universal truths.”
4. Figure out what you don’t like: “When you start making those decisions, that’s how you get a style. You can do a lot by process of elimination. Start with what does not look good on you and then don’t wear that shit,” he says, laughing.
5.It’s all about the touch: “I’m very into texture,” he tells me. “I had a few talks about it with some of my friends, including Joe [Joseph Gordon-Levitt], who’s famously a very dapper dresser,” says Segan about deciding on the perfect suit for the Roy Thomson Hall premiere. “My role is a little left of centre so I thought maybe I could let that inform what I do on the red carpet. I worked with Strellson and we started with the French cuff shirt. It makes you stand up straight, put your shoulders back and not look like a bum, and we ended up finding a very nice blue, textured heavy linen jacket that worked very well.”
6.How to tell time with style: “I’m a big accessory guy, one of my hobbies, other than photography, is collecting watches, and that got so out of hand that I invested in a small watch company called
Bernhardt Watch based in North Carolina.” He unclasps the buckle of his brown leather band and hands the watch to me. “This is the watch that I wear in the film. It’s an Officer’s Watch and is a Swiss 6497 hand dial movement that is one of the oldest still in-production watch movements, they’ve been making it the same way in Switzerland for about 100 years.”
7. It’s actually not all about the suit (sort of): “At the end of the day, what people are looking for, what they’re really, really looking for, that thing that ends up being that weird x-factor that makes anyone attractive or interesting, is charisma, and I think that that comes from confidence. It comes from talent, it comes from skill, education, and you get powerful because of that; you get powerful if you’re good at your job, but that sense of attraction that someone has is about being able to stand up straight, and if doing something stylistically makes you feel that way, that’s what you got to do.”

Trends

Meet our January 2017 cover girl: Canadian model Crista Cober

Canadian model (and star of our January fashion story) Crista Cober has been working in the industry for 12 years, but she’s still wrapping her head around the public’s desire to know about her inner life. “I’m a professional model, so I think, wait, ‘you also want to know about me?” explains the Wellesley, Ont. native over the phone, having just returned from a lookbook shot in Milan.

Lucky for us, Toronto-based Cober offers a glimpse at her day-to-day on her largely unfiltered, just-as-I-am Instagram feed, where the model’s nine-month old daughter Lou makes the odd (adorable) appearance. Over the course of our chat, Cober opened up about motherhood, rebellion and yes, modelling.

Tell me about your day shooting for the cover of ELLE Canada's January issue.

“It was the quintessential Canadian vibe—a true collaboration. The location [Crown Flora Studio] was beautiful; it was like breathing in the tropics. I shot with [the photographer] Max Abadian 12 years ago. It was my very first shoot. So that was a very special moment. And I got to have my daughter on set.”

“Yes. I’m less inclined to say yes to some amazing projects. It’s much harder; I used to go from one job to the next, to the next. And now I have to be a lot more selective.”

Other than your schedule, what factors make you say yes?

“The people. I value my time, and to be away from someone I think is the greatest person on the planet, I want to make sure that I’m working with the right people. After 12 years, I have a better judge of things,”

How else have you evolved as a model in 12 years?

“I feel like I can collaborate a bit more with the people running the ship. I can be a bit more involved. I think now there’s a bit more of an interest in who I am as a person, rather than just what I look like. I’m not sure I like that yet.”

So how do you feel about that? It sounds like it plays into today’s phenomenon of the Insta-model.

“I’m in my 30s now, so I feel like I kind of skipped it. I like to use Instagram to post the pictures of what I want to show, as opposed to letting it have anything to do with work. Once I did a fragrance shoot, I understood that ‘now you’re the face!’ There was a lot of PR, a lot of hype. I had a moment of feeling like I wanted to keep my business and my life separate.

Would you say you’re shy?

“I had an amazing agent when I started in Toronto. I learned that this is a business and you’re self-employed. At the end of the day, you run you. There are a lot of beautiful faces out there, but there are less kind people. I approached going into my agency as my biggest casting. I wouldn’t say I’m shy, but I’m professional.”

Do you feel like this isn’t what you singed up for when you started?

“I was lucky to be able to stop modelling and come back. When I first started skateboarding, everyone thought that was really cool and wanted to incorporate it [into shoots]. And I was like, ‘this is just my mode of transportation because my bike got stolen! ‘I’m not a skater!”

Do you still skateboard?

“Yeah. Everywhere.”

What’s your advice to young models?

“Just love yourself so much for you! The business is always changing; something that doesn’t fit one day will fit another day.”

How did you start modelling?

“I was scouted by an incredible model scout, Anthony Gordon. He was an amazing ballet dancer and he had an eye for faces. He wasn’t a scout at the time, but we went to the same high school, 10 years apart. He found my picture in a yearbook. 5 days later he bumped into me at a shopping mall and when I told him my name, he said, ‘you will not believe this!’ and told me the story and took me to Elmer Olsen. Then I did my first editorial and that was the start."

Was there a point when you thought to yourself “wow, I’m a model. This is my career now.”

“No, I think that took a couple of years. I remember [the agency] showing me Daria on the cover of Vogue and explaining that that was my potential, then I went straight to New York, and from there to Paris.”

What made you stop modelling for a while?

“I came from an athletic background and I was a swimmer. The agency in Paris sent me back immediately because they said I was too big. I came back to Canada, and I thought, ‘this is my body.’ It was the size of my hands and my wrists [that they talked about].”

How did it feel to hear that?

“It made me stronger, more rebellious. But it gave me the opportunity to stop, and start again. When I was 21 I stopped for four months and I went to South America.”

Do you have any hopes or goals for your career?

“An amazing beauty contract or something that sets up 6o days of the year. Before I didn’t want to know what was coming up the next month. Now I love the idea of having more of a set schedule.”

So what does life look like right now?

“For now, I’m just enjoying. My daughter travels so well, and my husband works from home. So on the days we have nothing, we’re just exploring Toronto.”

One of the Beckham kids just released a Christmas single

Music

One of the Beckham kids just released a Christmas single

Cruz—aka the 11 year old third born of Victoria and David—just released a Christmas single, and for a pre-teen, it ain't bad.

Is it going to knock 'All I Want For Christmas (Is You)' from its throne as greatest holiday song of all time? No. But it is on the same level as say, a Bieber's 'Mistletoe'. And speaking of: Cruz is being managed by Justin's manager, the star-making Scooter Braun.

Have a listen to 'If Every Day Was Christmas' here. (PS. All proceeds go to charity!)

Hair

Ronda Rousey has a major beauty contract

In the '80s, Pantene released a campaign with model Kelly LeBrock asking people, "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful." (See below for that commercial in all its glory.) Now, the hair brand has updated the phrase for 2016, partnering with mixed martial artist Ronda Rousey to tell women, "Don't hate me because I'm strong."

“I’m fully aware that I might not be the first person people think of to collaborate with a beauty brand," says Rousey. "I’ve been called ‘Miss Man’ and ‘savage’ because of my physique, but to me, strength isn’t only about having muscles. It’s about having heart and finding inner confidence, so I’m honored that Pantene asked me to be part of their new campaign that encourages women to break gender barriers, break the glass ceiling and never settle.”

Celebrity

Saint West celebrated his first birthday and there are a lot of pictures on the Internet

The youngest member of the Kimye family turned one yesterday, and while the joyous occasion didn’t propel Kim Karadashian back onto social media, her family and friends stepped in to mark the occasion on the Internet with lots of photos.

Cue the awwwwws.

Kim’s BFF Jonathan Cheban took to Kim's website to share two “never-before-seen” photos of her with Saint.

Aunt Khloé had this to share on her website: "I can't believe how quickly time flies! Watching my little Saint grow this past year has been amazing. He's seriously such an angel and could not be more adorable. What a light he's been for our family!"